I hope WGT is listening to this. Forgive the rambling at the end and kudos to anyone who actually makes it there. :D
The pre-determined bad shot is the single most thing that is ruining this game in my view. No matter how good the graphics are, no matter how many courses, tournaments or modes of you play you have, if I'm still missing 2.7 foot flat putts because of this nonsense (which I did yesterday, Jarid was there), then everything else you do is for naught.
The simple fact of the matter is, the better you are, the more that pure, unadulterated bad luck will be involved in your score. Case in point is tibbets. He's not winning nearly as many tournaments as before and for
some, this is a probably viewed as a relief. For me however, this just serves to drive home the fact that deviations of this magnitude are ruining the game for all of us. Did tibbets suddenly forget how to play golf? Of course not. So what really happened? Thanks to deviations he's being penalized for his perfect shots. I feel he is no longer being accurately represented as the best player on the game which he clearly is. So what's the ultimate deciding factor between his and my tournament finishes right now? A little skill for sure, but it's predominantly the game itself. In a way, I'm getting the upper hand on him because he's being knocked down by the large deviation rounds as well. That's not an accurate representation of his skill compared to mine, so I'm technically earning an advantage by doing nothing. This game was much better when tibbets was the man to beat and the rest of us had to go out there and beat him. Deviations are the reason it's not like that anymore and that's wrong on every level when you consider we're paying to enter some of these tournaments. Chances are, when I do beat him, it was because I got lucky and he didn't or I didn't lucky and he got extremely unlucky. No where in there can I pound my chest and say, "Woo I beat tibbets because I was more skillful this time", because really I didn't. I get no sense of accomplishment at all and end up taking virtually nothing away from these results because deep down I know the real reason why I scored better. It was either pure luck or the absence of bad luck.
But it's ok because deviations affect everyone equally, right?
Not even close. Not everyone gets the same deviations at the same time. Not everyone gets the same amount of deviations from round to round and not everyone gets the severity of deviations. In essence, it's completely random and we're all left at it's mercy. No amount of skill (aside from prognostication) will teach you how to predict a deviation before it comes. Instead of fixing what's wrong, WGT has introduced Unlimited Play tournaments. It seems clear they did this to appease the players like tibbets, because eventually he'll hit the score he should when he hits a round that has non-critical deviations. This is absolutely the wrong way to go about it because it rewards him for having the most time to play, not for being the best.. tibbets IS the best player on here by a clear margin. If he's not leading or at least competing to win in the majority of one-off tournaments then something is wrong with the system. It now begs the question of, "why isn't the clear cut best & most consistent player winning the majority of one-offs?" The sad answer to which is random chance deviations.
So what does this do for the game?
Well, we're not playing golf here anymore. At least, not any of us on or near the Top 10 list. We've basically mastered the golf part already. The game is now a glorified pattern hunt. We spend the majority of our time looking for patterns in deviations that will help to give us back the edge we deserve (by practicing and playing more than most) in the first place. We spend the majority of our time grinding for scores, hoping to run across that one round where deviations happen at non-critical times (not on 6 foot putts). You enter single play tournaments thinking to yourself "I hope this isn't a bad set of deviations" instead of thinking "I hope to play well this time." It's ripping the fun right out of the game for a lot of us, especially the ones who have supported this game and it's creators from Day 1.
You want realistic scoring averages? No chance in hell. Not until what is happening to us on the course is actually realistic and plausible. You cannot in any way justify an 8yd deviation on a perfectly struck shot. You just can't. 2 or 3 yards is believable, 8 yards is not. You cannot justify deviations on the greens whatsoever. On real greens you judge the line, you measure the speed and you hit the putt with a good stroke. All of those elements are represented in the game, but no, in comes a random fourth element that says , "let's misdirect this putt 15 degrees right instead." No way.
For me personally, I sure as hell do not have nearly as much fun on this site that I once did and this is exactly why. I don't play as much as I used to because of it. Deviations were present in the past, as Avatar mentioned, but they were playable to the point where you knew where the ball was going to go if you hit it straight. While that offered a more realistic solution than the current system does, neither is the right way to represent this as golf.
So how do they fix this mess?
Easy. Get rid of deviations, to which the usual response is "but we don't want scores in the 40's". You won't if you also change the swing meter. As Avatar said, it's way too forgiving. If you remove deviations then you actually have a reason to decrease forgiveness and penalize us for missing. If you can find that sweet spot between the two then the scores should remain about the same. Listen to me when I tell you your swing speed philosophy is backwards and is part of the overall problem. There currently is no incentive to upgrade at all and the adage "you get what you pay for" is entirely misapplied here. Most folks are content to stick it out with the Starters because they know that upgrading past Tour Starters will only make it harder for them to score. That's not the way it should work and definitely won't sell your clubs. In reality it shouldn't make it harder or easier, it should just make it different. That difference represented by a slower meter and smaller forgiveness zone. You might get that 1-2 shot improvement in a club upgrade and that's entirely expected and realistic.
The introductory club set should have the fastest meter coupled with the largest forgiveness zone. This parallel's real life knock off clubs to a T. After all, forgiveness was the main reason for the invention of the cavity back iron. This will make people want to get rid of starters and upgrade their clubs ASAP. People will feel that their money was well spent, instead of feeling as if they were hosed. The farther up the line you go, the swing meters should continue to slow down making it easier to hit it perfect. Doesn't that make the game easier? No, not if you continue to decrease forgiveness too so that missing by the slightest margin on the slowest meters puts you offline by a few yards, much like real forged irons would.
Deviations
are the sole reason for my sour attitude. I'm tired of missing 6
footers because the game has determined it to be so. If I ever miss a
6 footer, it should be ONLY because I misread the green or mishit the
putt and nothing else. Period.
To sum it all up, I'm pretty unhappy with the collective game as it stands right now and I'm calling shenanigans on this nonsense WGT. It has to stop, or eventually we're all just going to get fed up with it and leave. There are other options.
In the meantime, while having discussed this with some other players around here, I will cross my fingers hoping that some of this gets through and that the advent of the Pro Tier and beyond will begin to offer real solutions to these nagging issues that are currently dragging this game through the mud.
I've played real golf for 19 years and I've played every single video golf game under the sun. I've always had a stupid nerdling dream to develop or help develop a golf game myself so I really believe I know what needs to go into one to make it entirely successful on all levels. I see critical errors being made and it worries me because this game has the chance to absolutely be THE online golf game. I'm not trying to sound cocky, but I really think I can help you fix these problems, achieve that #1 goal and sell a whole hell of a lot of golf clubs along the way.
Here's an analogy for you to ponder. Imagine a bridge that is halfway built. It's a good bridge and a lot of folks clearly see it's potential of use. The only problem is the structural supports on the bridge are beginning to stress because the foundation was not laid properly. Instead of addressing that issue and possibly falling behind schedule, the foreman orders the work to continue so the bridge is completed and opens on time. For a while, everything is fine, because there's not quite enough stress in the structural supports. But one day, that bridge will come down and a lot of people will get hurt because it was more important to meet the deadline than it was to make sure the foundation was properly in place. Think about that.
Avatar:
I think once we get out of beta we're going to see most, if not all of that stuff implemented. I'm not sure if I want to see the end of Beta in the current stage though. Sorry, I kinda hijacked your thread, so I had to stay on topic with an answer for ya. :D